Controlware Communications Systems

Mission
When Warrington Collegiate built a new £27 million campus, it wanted to make sure that its communications network was future-proofed. The college needed a converged infrastructure that included comprehensive CCTV surveillance to help reduce the threat of crime and provide a safe learning environment for teachers, staff and visitors.

Solution
Warrington Collegiate turned to Controlware solution partners ntl:Telewest Business for a high-capacity Next Generation Network and integrated surveillance solution. Based around Controlware’s own Cware management platform the advanced solution allowed for the integration of existing cameras and new IP PTZ domes to produce a video surveillance and recording solution for 50 cameras across campus.

Nick Smeltzer, Head of IT Services at Warrington Collegiate explains that “the IP CCTV system is flexible, easy to use and delivers exceptional image quality. CCTV can now be monitored from multiple locations both on and off campus. The system can also easily be extended by adding new cameras or storage hardware because Cware is an open management platform, this also means we are not tied into a single video manufacturer”.

The college is now able to easily accommodate new technologies and applications such as H.264, Megapixel cameras, Video Analytics, Facial Recognition and ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition) as requirements develop in the future.

Result
Warrington Collegiate now has an advanced, highly flexible IP CCTV system that helps make campus surveillance more effective. Improved image quality makes identification of suspects more likely and fast review and retrieval of recorded video is easy with time and date based archive searches. Incidents of vandalism and theft have decreased saving the college thousands of pounds while further costs are saved because the system can be maintained in house by the college’s IT department. One unanticipated benefit was the cost savings that came from using PoE (Power over Ethernet) technology which required fewer cables to be run to cameras than traditional cabling. The network is also protected against power failure by UPS’s (Uninterruptable Power Supplies) that deliver increased resilience over analogue or hybrid based systems where each camera would rely on its own power supply.